


ADAPT.  EVOLVE.  SURVIVE.

by Murf1307



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Darwin Leads the X-Men, Darwin Lives, Discussion of Historical Racism, Epistolary, Fix-It, Interviews, M/M, Magazine Article, Not Canon Compliant, The Sixties are the Sixties, X-Men: First Class Fix It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-09-13 02:17:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9102079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murf1307/pseuds/Murf1307
Summary: Melita Garner, TIME Magazine reporter, scoops the story of a career: a look into the inner sanctum of the X-Men.  The centerpiece?  An interview with their leader, Darwin.





	

**Author's Note:**

> yes, this is a fic written as if it were a magazine article. because someone on this ship needs to write the pretentious historical fiction tropes, damnit.

**ADAPT.**  
EVOLVE.  
SURVIVE.

The X-Men’s unusual field leader, his dangerous second in command, and what mutantkind means for the counterculture.

_written by M. Garner_

**7/3/1967, WESTCHESTER, NEW YORK.**  The grounds of the estate roll seamlessly into deep, almost forbidding woods.  Visually, it’s the complete opposite of the fast, easy urbanism of the Haight-Ashbury, three thousand miles away in San Francisco.  There’s an air of old money, but that money is in new hands.  
          Ideologically, you could say that the Haight and this estate have more in common than they don’t.  I’m here to talk to the field leader of the remarkably private team of apparently super-powered individuals known to the press as the _X-Men_ .  Public opinion on them, and the community they seem to represent, is hopelessly split, and many see the X-Men’s existence as a reaction to the Kennedy Assassination and the subsequent Magneto Trial, the first time humanity had to come to grips with what some across the political spectrum are calling ‘the mutant menace.’  
          I meet Darwin at the door of an exquisite old mansion.  I’ve seen him before -- as the field leader and public face of the X-Men, many people would recognize him immediately.  He greets me warmly, his smile utterly lacking in deception.  But he is guarded.  He doesn’t quite trust me.  I haven’t given him reason to, really, and I understand that.  
          Once inside, he lets me know that right now, the Beast is in his laboratory, Banshee is likely asleep, because he’s half-nocturnal these days, and Tempest and Havok are likely in the library.  His smile twitches a little wider, a little prouder, when he says that Havok is working on a geophysics degree.  I nod, and smile, and suggest that maybe we check the library.  He laughs, like a man caught out at something, and nods back.  
          “Havok will probably be a little standoffish, and I know Tempest won’t want to talk to you,” he explains as we move toward the library, winding through an almost labyrinthine floor plan.  “I hope you won’t be offended -- they’ve seen some things I wouldn’t wish on anyone, and so has Banshee.  They’re not always all that willing to chat.”  
          When we get there, Havok is stretched out in a gable window seat, shirt untucked and unbuttoned.  Young women familiar with the exploits of the X-Men may be interested to know the strip of skin I caught a glimpse of was suntanned, and his eyes are bright blue as he looks up from his book, refocusing immediately on Darwin after briefly flashing those eyes over at me.  
          “It’s the magazine reporter,” Darwin says, helpfully, “Ms. Garner, this is Havok.  Havok, Ms. Garner of TIME magazine.”  
          Havok measures me with his eyes, and I get the sense, for the first time, then, that more is going on in this conversation than I explicitly can say.  I put the notion aside, and smile at both of them.  “The two of you are known for how well you work together in the fights the X-Men find themselves in,” I say, offering my hand.  
          Havok looks down at, and then shakes, my hand.  His grip is strong, and sure, but there is something still unsettled in his demeanor.  “Darwin’s good at what he does,” he says.  
          Havok speaks like that, I would come to find: blunt, concise.  He’s unnervingly quiet most of the time, acling as almost a guard dog throughout my visit, his eyes usually on Darwin, as if waiting for something.  Darwin doesn't need to speak, either, to him -- they communicate on another level; a brief touch to Havok's shoulder, his elbow.  Even shared glances seem to communicate more.  
          I believe this might be the central tenet of the way they fight together.  Many people who've witnessed the X-Men in action have commented that Havok and Darwin are a sub-unit unto themselves, and I see that here.  Havok stays close, pays attention.  Darwin directs him silently.  I even see them finishing each other's movements.  
          The quiet intensity of it all is striking.  These young men are bonded by experiences into a friendship unlike any I've ever seen.  The closest thing I can think of is the Iliad's Achilles and Patroclus.  
          God help any man who puts one of them in the ground.  Seven times around the walls of Troy will likely seem a gentle vengeance in comparison.  
          Either way, we eventually settle in the study, Havok swinging out from Darwin's shoulder like a comet in orbit.  He settles, sprawls artlessly, on a couch, eyes still on Darwin.  Darwin and I sit down in a pair of chairs facing each other.  A chessboard, game unfinished, sits between us.  It's fascinating to see the differences between the two of them -- while Havok's eyes are flinty, guarded, Darwin's are gently warm and open.  
          It’s as if they’re two halves of the same organism, though, and Darwin got all the charm.  He calms where Havok unsettles, smiles where Havok stares guardedly.  That said, the interview begins in earnest.  


* * *

   
**GARNER:** So, Darwin.  I’m guessing that’s not your real name.

 **DARWIN:** Not my legal name, no.  But I think it’s as real as my legal name -- it’s what all my friends call me, after all.

 **GARNER:** Fair enough.  Now, the press hasn’t exactly been kind to the X-Men since your first appearance just after the Magneto Trial ended.  A lot of speculation -- speculation that went unconfronted in those first few months -- asks why then, and why you didn’t, say, prevent the Kennedy Assassination.

 **DARWIN:** I could give you our reasons for not being around when Magneto killed Kennedy, but it’s not really relevant.  But yes, we did officially begin doing what we do after the trial.  The Professor -- our benefactor -- thought it would be sensible of us to show the world a different side of what mutants are and can be.

 **HAVOK:** ( _interrupting_ ) And with what Magneto did, someone had to go to bat for mutant kids that would get hurt because he [ **censored** ]ed us all over.

 **DARWIN:** Havok’s right.  We exist to protect the world from evil mutants, sure, but more than that, we exist to protect mutants from the people that hate and fear us, because we can’t trust society to do that for us.

 **HAVOK:** For a lot of reasons.  Not just the mutant thing.

 **DARWIN:** Hotshot, I think she knows.

 **GARNER:** I think I do.  It’s a rough world for a lot of people.  And that brings me to my next question, specifically for you, Darwin.  As the leader of the X-Men, and its public face, do you face special prejudice, as a black man?

 **DARWIN:** As an unkillable black man in America, yeah.  I have to walk a sort of line -- too radical and I fail to set an example of what a ‘safe’ mutant looks like --

 **HAVOK:** \-- Which I still think is a [ **censored** ] concept --

 **DARWIN:** \-- but if I’m too moderate, color too far inside the lines, then I’m only protecting a society that, let’s be honest here, wants me dead.

 **GARNER:** You said unkillable, just then.  Is that true?  You’ve survived a lot of things as an X-Man, and your powers seem to bend in that direction, but…

 **DARWIN:** Yeah, unkillable.  I can’t drown, be cut, or be burned, I’m bulletproof, radiation-proof, and I’ve even exploded without dying.

 _Havok exhales sharply from his nose._   _Darwin raises an eyebrow at him_.

 **GARNER:** That’s incredible.  

 **DARWIN:** When I was younger, I wound up interacting with some researchers who called it ‘reactive evolution.’  I adapt to survive, essentially.

_Havok jerks his head toward Darwin as he finishes the sentence, but says nothing._

**GARNER:** Mutants have, by and large, put you on the same level as Dr. King and Malcolm X.  Does that feel accurate to you?

 **DARWIN:** It’s a different thing.  I was down there, during Freedom Summer.  I’ve seen them speak.  I’ve never been quite like that.  I’m not an ideologue.  I fight to protect people, and that’s all I’ve ever been.  I leave the politics of it all to other people.

 **GARNER:** You’re still a public figure, though.  The most high-profile mutant in America.

 **DARWIN:** Maybe so.  I’ve got gifts, and that means I have an obligation to protect people in trouble.  Especially people at risk of being hurt for being who they are.

 **GARNER:** That’s a noble way to look at it.

 **HAVOK:** He’s always been like that.  First person I ever met who called what I can do a ‘gift.’  


* * *

  
WE TALK for a while more after that, about war, about the year Havok spent in Vietnam -- something that shouldn’t have surprised me, but did.  
          “I have a police record,” he says, “That’s how they drafted me.  I wasn’t -- well.  I wasn’t always around.”  
          Darwin leans toward him when he says that.  “You left, hotshot, before I could come back to you.”  It’s a quiet statement, not quite chiding.  As if this is a conversation they’ve had a million times.    
          I don’t ask what it means.  Sometimes, people just need their privacy, and this seems like such a personal thing.  At the very least, there’s history in the exchange, as if these two young men have seen more than I could ever glean just from this interview, this visit.    
          And it’s true -- Havok doesn’t appear in news coverage of the X-Men’s exploits until early last year.  I’m tempted to ask, but I don’t.  
          “Look, you try dealing with the Professor like that, okay?”  Sharp, bitter.  Havok seems to have forgotten I’m there.  I try to step back, out from the conversation, because this clearly has nothing to do with me.  “We all thought you were dead."  
          “You -- Damnit, hotshot, we’ve talked about this.  Now’s not the time to rehash it.”  Darwin gestures to me with his head.  
          Havok looks thrown, but concedes.  
          I change the subject.  


* * *

   
**WHAT DID I LEARN**  from my time with the X-Men?  First, that they’re people, which should have been obvious.  But with fame and notoriety surrounding their public faces, and the incredible things they can do, I think it’s easy to forget that.  
          But, that day in Westchester, I was allowed to catch a glimpse behind the public facade.  I saw more than the leader and his right-hand.  
          I saw two men who have seen, maybe, too much.  
          And I think that’s something we should remember.


End file.
